Tritium and Neutron Production by 2.2-Bev Protons on Nitrogen and Oxygen

Abstract

The cross sections for tritium production by 2.2-Bev protons on nitrogen and oxygen are measured to be 28\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}4 and 33\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}4 mb, respectively. The cross sections for neutron production by 2.2-Bev protons are measured to be 1000\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}400 mb for nitrogen and 650\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}250 mb for oxygen. These results indicate that cosmic-ray primaries produce approximately 0.05 tritons/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ sec and 1-2 neutrons/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ sec in the first nuclear interactions with the atmosphere.